The Institute of Statistical, Social and Economic Research, ISSER, has asked government to track its expenditure occasioned by the COVID-19 pandemic.
The Institute says funds disbursed to support businesses affected by the pandemic, must be monitored to ensure that they are going to the right targets to prevent corruption and misuse.
Analyzing the 2020 Mid-year budget review at a press briefing, Director of ISSER, Prof. Peter Quartey, said government spending must be properly tracked to minimize acts of corruption.
The COVID-19 pandemic has had a significant impact on the global economy. Governments around the world are thus forced to implement various fiscal measures to mitigate the impact on businesses, individuals and households by providing different relief packages with the sole aim of reviving economies.
The government of Ghana has thus rolled out several initiatives to cushion businesses and individuals.
In the 2020 Mid-year budget Review; government announced additional measures to sustain the gains as the country continues to record more COVID-19 cases.
Speaking to Citi Business News, Prof. Peter Quartey expressed fears that government support to various sectors economy may be misused without adequate monitoring.
“What government needs now is to do more of expenditure tracking because the last time we did one was in 2007, so we need to do expenditure tracking to track the various expenditures right from the disbursement stage to the internal beneficiary”.
“Once we are able to do that, perhaps we may not need to be borrowing at the rate at which we are borrowing now. We will have value for money for every item of expenditure. In this covid era, if you are not careful people will hide behind covid and misuse the public funds and we want to avoid that so let’s do more of expenditure tracking”